ICPC Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, disclosed this while presenting a System Study Review of Budget Implementation for MDAs, adding that the infractions included third party deductions from cooperatives and union dues.
He said the money was restrained and retained within the system when the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) was notified about the leakages.
He explained that the first step was to block the leakages in IPPIS and conclude third party deductions to curb manipulation by the MDAs.
Owasanoye said the second step taken by the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS) was the deactivation of MDAs’ Role Players from performing personnel-related transactions on GIFMIS, thereby blocking all personnel budget lines of IPPIS in the MDAs.
Explaining that in its 2019 SSR, the commission mopped up N42b unspent personnel cost in MDAs portal, he disclosed that the ICPC mopped up additional N147b in 2020.
He explained that the Minister of Finance through ICPC’s findings of wrong application of personnel cost on overhead and capital item, issued a negative warrant to mop up excess cash in the MDAs personnel cost to forestall further misapplication of funds.
He adding that a similar warrant was issued in 2020 amounting to N147b, which he said, was a huge savings to the Federal Government.
The ICPC boss pointed out that late release of budget allocations, especially at the end of the year was giving room for chaotic expenditure, circumvention of procedure, fraud and corruption and advised government to desist.
“MDAs should be advised to issue financial reports on time to enable completion of annual audit and publishing of result on time. Sanctions should be introduced for excessive delays.
“Appropriated funds should be released in time to allow strict compliance with procurement procedure, otherwise they should be deferred till the next fiscal year as government is a continuum”
“Year 2020 was very challenging, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic leading to low revenue, low crude sales, low economic activities and recession, among others, hence blocking leakages and wastages in the system is crucial,” he stated.
Owasanoye stressed that the infractions in several SSRs constitute risks and building blocks for inefficient public expenditure and pervasive corruption in the country’s public finance system.
